


Everyone knows you're the way to my heart

by playlistmusings



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Cardan and Jude love each other, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Tension, The Court of Shadows, all of my fics are just Cardan and Jude being idiots before realizing that they can have feelings, and everyone knows this except them, and this one isn't any different, like just slightly to the left of a soulmate au, set vaguely in the time between tCP and tWK, this is like soulmate-fic adjacent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-20 06:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30001014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/playlistmusings/pseuds/playlistmusings
Summary: Jude and Cardan love each other so much that they're convinced they hate each other. Everyone else can see through their lies to themselves. So, with the help of some enchanted necklaces, the Court of Shadows decides to solve this problem-- because all the complaining and yearning is really getting old.Ft. Jude and Cardan refusing to have one (1) singular thought about their actual feelings and a very helpful Roach.Set vaguely between the Cruel Prince and the Wicked King.(cross posted to Tumblr)
Relationships: Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay!!! I am here with a multi chapter fic and way too much confidence in myself!!! I have the whole thing plotted out and am about 3 chapters into writing it, so I should be posting pretty regularly and the first actual chapter should be posted tomorrow.  
> A huge thanks to Braia for listening to me work through fic ideas and giving me inspiration.  
> As always constructive criticism and all other comments are extremely welcome!
> 
> Check out my tumblr:  
> https://playlistmusings.tumblr.com/  
> (Title from Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers)

Ever since High King Cardan's rise to the throne, and Jude's subsequent rise to power at his right hand, the people of Elfhame became increasingly aware of two things. The first was while Cardan and Jude acted like enemies, they were hopelessly in love with each other. The second was that the only people who couldn't understand this were Cardan and Jude themselves. And no one understood or had to deal with the consequences of these to things more than the Court of Shadows.

The Bomb argued that they would realize someday but it was wrong to interfere with other people's lives. The Ghost laughed and said that all the Court of Shadows did was interfere with people's lives. The Roach looked at both of them and said that he would rather get tortured than listen to Cardan complain about Jude ever again so he didn't care if it was his place and started to devise a plan.

During all of his years thieving and learning about things that people wanted to keep a secret, the Roach had encountered quite a few interesting trinkets, but in the moment he could only think of one thing-- well, technically, it was two things-- that would work for their current predicament. Granted, he'd only ever read about it, but he'd be damned if him, the Bomb, and the Ghost couldn't steal some jewelry from an unsuspecting vault.

And so, two days later, the Court of Shadows-- minus their king and the Queen, of course-- were back in their hidden rooms, holding two jeweled pendants and waiting for the perfect time to execute their plan.


	2. Yelled down the hall, but nobody answered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cardan is constantly hiding and Jude is getting sick of it. Luckily, the Roach has an easy solution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want everyone to know that I had this typed up and ready to post over two hours ago but my mouse went missing and I had to go buy a new one :( But in other news, I wrote all of chapter 3, so it'll be up next Friday!!!
> 
> Chapter title from Graceland Too by Phoebe Bridgers bc I can't come up with titles and I wanted it to vaguely match the title of the whole fic :)

Jude was sick of Cardan. She was sick of being his puppet-master, she was sick of making clever commands for him to follow, sick of ruling in his stead and getting none of the credit. She was tired and angry and anxious for all sorts of reasons but she knew that nothing, _nothing,_ could ever evoke the intense emotions that a single thought of Cardan could. He was insufferable and irresponsible and _so many_ other things that it made Jude want to rip her hair out or push a knife through his chest-- that is if she could even find him. Because, _of course_ , right when things were looking up-- advisors treating her like a person and not a schoolgirl, tensions between Elfame and other lands finally starting to diminish, _getting_ _full nights of sleep_ \-- Cardan started disappearing. It's not like Jude even cared _where_ he was-- probably off with a group of pretty faeries having the time of his life, she thought with a painful twist in her gut before reminding herself that _she didn't care_ what (or who, her mind provided, unhelpfully) _he did_ \-- it was that he was always disappearing when she needed to brief him before a meeting or get him to sign important documents. And she could _never find him_. It always ended with Jude giving up and going to the meeting without him or winding her way to his chambers to leave parchments scattered on a side table with a quill and ink next to them.

It was awful. Jude had been struggling to get him to listen to her when she told him to _just_ _cooperate_. And even if she wanted to take the easy way out and just order Cardan to do his work, she would have to be able to find him first. She couldn't think of any solutions to her problem, except perhaps to order him to stay with her all the time. That however, wouldn't even work when she thought it through. After all, even if all of Elfhame thought she was his closest advisor, it would be suspicious if he _never_ left her side. And besides, even if she could justify potentially putting her whole plan at risk by ordering him to something that gave her so much control, the thought of spending one day-- much less months-- with Cardan practically shackled to her was already making her miserable. So, she suffered his disappearing acts and hoped beyond measure that he would grow bored of his childish antics sooner rather than later.

The most infuriating things by far were the ones like now, where Jude had spent _hours_ walking through corridors searching for Cardan and finally found him when she gave up and went to the Court of Shadows-- the place that she had first looked. He was leisurely propped on a chair by the table, drinking some sort of potent wine, while speaking to the Roach, laughing and looking far too comfortable for someone who was _supposed_ to be signing important documents at the moment. And of course, Cardan didn't even have the piece of mind to look apologetic when Jude narrowed his eyes at him and called him all sorts of names under her breath before throwing a stack of paper at his chest.

As Jude left Cardan at the table, where he was now fumbling to pick the papers up from where they fluttered around him on the floor, the Roach stood to follow her into the training room. Knowing what was coming, the Roach stood off to the side of the room while Jude breathed deeply to try to calm her mind, before giving up and unsheathing Nightfell and slashing a practice dummy in half.

" _Stupid_ Cardan and his _stupid_ wandering and _stupid_ inability to do anything that could be interpreted as _helpful_." Jude punctuated every phrase with another hit to the bottom half of the dummy that remained standing.

The Roach stood, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, watching Jude slaughter the dummy, before Jude spun to face him.

With Nightfell pointed dangerously close to his neck and a viscous glint in her eyes Jude yelled, "What do you even _want?_ Don't you have better things to do than to just _stand there and stare?_ Weren't you too busy laughing and drinking with Cardan to even _tell me where he was?"_

The Roach simply pushed himself off the wall to say, with a calm tone that only frustrated Jude even more, "Why does Cardan disappearing even bother you? It's not like he's going out and getting hurt or actually missing meetings?"

Jude hated him for asking that. In some part of her mind she knew she was only angry because she had been asking herself those same questions for days now and couldn't find any answer that didn't frustrate or confuse her. But instead of voicing any of this or showing vulnerability, Jude lowered Nightfell and sighed, "Because I need to work, because _he_ needs to work, and if I _can't even find him_ then how can either of us keep this place running?"

Later, with the gift of hindsight, Jude would note that the Roach's eyes had lit up in some terrifying way at these words, as if she had fallen into some brilliant trap, but in the moment she couldn't even bring herself to notice the slight upturning of his lips, her mind filled with frustration and anger.

"You just want to be able to know where he is? That's it?"

Jude nodded at the Roach's words, "I mean, if I could just find him when I needed to, then it would solve about ninety percent of my problems."

"Well, lucky for you, my dear, I have the perfect thing. I just found--" ( _stole,_ Jude filled in) _"_ \-- it yesterday." He pulled one of the pendants looped on a chain from a pocket.

Jude eyed it wearily, trying to think despite the fog of anger that had clouded her rational thought all day. On one hand, Jude was constantly aware that gifts from faeries were dangerous, especially if you didn’t know who made it or its purpose. But on another hand, Jude was fed up and tired of having to find all the solutions herself, and here the Roach was, someone who Jude trusted with more than her life, giving her an easy answer. So before she could think through rash actions she snatched the chain and asked "How does it work?"

"It should get warmer as he nears. But it only--" Before she heard the Roach's warning, Jude was out of the training room, stalking past Cardan where he sat signing documents at the table, satisfied that she finally solved a problem. As Jude walked back to her room, she slipped the necklace over her head while thinking about falling into bed and dreaming of days that didn't include searching for Cardan-- and _definitely did not_ include the _stupid_ way her stomach fluttered when she heard him laughing when she had found him today. 


	3. Chapter 3- Always surprised by what I'd do for love, Some things I'll never expect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!! I am back! I should have another chapter next Friday, and I think that this is gonna be a six chapter fic and I'm going to continue posting once a week! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoys this chapter!!

Cardan was drunk. But that's nothing new or exciting, so he couldn't be bothered to bring himself to care that he shouldn't be signing state documents while tipsy. He had seen Jude exit the Court of Shadows a few minutes ago and was vaguely aware that the Roach had followed her out of the training room but he wasn't sober enough to consider why the Roach was staring at him with a calculating look. It took a slow five minutes before the Roach finally spoke, "I have something for you, if you want it."

Cardan looked up at the Roach, confused as to why the Roach would have anything for him-- after all, Cardan was the High King of Elfhame and could get his hands on anything he could ever want. He was weary of most gifts, especially those that he didn't see coming, because everything in Faerie held a second, secret-- and usually sinister-- meaning, but there was no reason he should be wary of the Roach, his teacher, _his friend_. He made up his mind to at least see what it was before deciding one way or the other, he owed the Roach at least that much trust. "What is it?"

The Roach gave a mischievous smirk before reaching into a pocket and stepping closer to the table. In his hand he held a sparking pendant on a small gold chain, the stone on the pendant glimmered in the dim light of the room and somewhere in the back of his mind, Cardan felt a pull towards it. The Roach let the necklace fall through his fingers onto one of the parchments that Cardan had set aside on the table, before reaching into his jacket pocket. As Cardan gingering picked up the necklace, turning the pendant over in his fingers, feeling the smooth surface of the stone against his fingertips. The Roach held a folded piece of paper out to Cardan, one of the edges was jagged as if it were torn from a book.

"It's one of the Sensum necklaces. It senses people's true feelings," The Roach said simply, before passing Cardan the paper. "This is a passage about it."

Cardan took the paper from his hand, feeling as if he had heard of the necklace somewhere, but not registering what exactly the necklace did. Even if the Roach's explanation was brief, it wasn't as if he could lie nor did Cardan think the Roach was trying to deceive him, and he did give him a whole passage with the details-- but Cardan didn't think he could convince himself to read it, especially not with the possibility of doing something more enticing, like drinking himself senseless at a revel or antagonizing Jude.

At the prompting of a noncommittal grunt from Cardan, the Roach continued on explaining, "It'll heat up with feelings of love or adoration and cool if there are feelings of resentment or dislike."

Cardan thought of all the times he could have solved so many problems quickly if he knew how truly felt-- from receiving gifts at revels to gauging whether his advisors were sincere. It certainly _couldn't hurt_ to wear the necklace, even if the Roach wasn't being exact with his language. So, with little thought he slipped the chain over his head and picked up the parchments he left discarded on the table, including the passage the Roach had handed him, and uttered a quick "thanks" before retreating back to his chambers for the night.

\-----

The next morning, Cardan lounged in bed, thinking of all the duties he was going to attempt to avoid today and how he was going to avoid Jude from dragging him to perform said duties. Lately, he had prided himself in evading her, sneaking to the palace gardens or the Court of Shadows or empty offices and chambers. He would spend hours flipping through long forgotten books or drinking wine while wandering in order to avoid her persistent nagging. Cardan knew he should be somewhat forgiving and helpful, after all Jude _was_ practically running Elfhame single-handedly from behind his shadow and she wasn't asking much from him. But more importantly, Cardan was stubborn and knew if he started giving into what Jude wanted, he'd never stop, and she already had too much power over him-- even without being able to compel him to follow any of her orders.

Cardan's hand drifted down to the pendant hanging from his neck distantly wondering whether it would heat or cool in Jude's presence, whether her thinly veiled annoyance was really a coping mechanism for her, just as it was for him. Whether she felt the same about him but was simply too scared or too stubborn to admit it. Whether that one kiss with her knife against his throat meant even half as much to her as it did to him-- and in the deep recess of his mind he let himself wonder whether she wanted to kiss him again.

Deep down Cardan knew he wouldn't ever answer any of these questions because he only vague understood the necklace. After all, he had only been wearing the necklace for one night and part of the morning, but he already felt a steady heat. He was confused as to why the necklace would heat if there was no one in his chambers but thought that it could perhaps be the guards outside his doors or servants scurrying through secret hallways that hid behind his walls. More importantly, the necklace never got hot enough for him to consider finding the paper the Roach had given him.

That was until Jude entered his room. For a short moment, Cardan registered that he shouldn't be surprised by the searing pain against his sternum, because the necklace had been steadily rising in temperature for the past few minutes. But it was something about the way the necklace grew to an uncomfortable heat right as Jude swung the doors to his bedroom open that threw him off. But Cardan didn't dwell on that for too long because he quickly realized something much more important _: Jude was the only person in the_ room _and that meant that the_ person loved _him_. Jude _loved_ him.


End file.
